Mending
by Saraste
Summary: Will Kouga be able to mend Inuyasha's broken heart and spirit? And should he even try? Yaoi, postMpreg, Preg, MirokuxSango, past InuyashaKagome, past Kouga?...
1. Chapter 1

Author : Saraste

Fandom : Inuyasha

Pairings : MirokuxSango, past InuyashaxKagome, past Kouga/? (I'll let you guess, it ain't so hard..)

Rating : PG-13

Genre : Slash with a side-serving of het(non-explicit), Family

Warnings : MPREG

- - - -

"Inuyasha, there's someone here to see you." Sango knelt down by the hanyo and lay a hand on the hanyo's shoulder to get his attention.

It was a feat for her as the man lay on his side on the floor and the former taijiya was weighed down by the weight of her swollen stomach, making her movements slow. She'd soon be giving birth to her and Miroku's first child.

Inuyasha just lay there, listless, not showing any reaction to having heard or otherwise noticed the woman. Sango gently shook his shoulder, not even getting the reaction of him shrugging her hand off. She sighed and got up slowly, bracing her hand against her back, groaning slightly. She'd be clad when the child was born, her back was killing her.

Although Sango knew perfectly well why Inuyasha behaved like he did, why the once lively, annoying and exuberant hanyo was reduced to this apathetic state, his behaviour still worried her greatly. She glanced at him worriedly and backed out of the hut and talked in hushed voices with Inuyasha's visitor.

Inuyasha heard someone enter the hut again, his mind registering such things still. Not that it mattered any more. Nothing mattered to him now. Not when the one he'd loved was gone.

It had all happened so suddenly that it all still seemed like it might be just a dream, not the grim reality. The Shard seekers had enjoyed peace after having defeated Naraku with their combined Shikon no Tama enhanced powers.

But even with Naraku gone it didn't mean all demons were. They'd been to careless. And had paid dearly for it.

And such was Kagome's fate that she was attacked by surprise on her way to the small village on Sesshoumaru's lands where the friends had all settled down. The attack had been swift. Inuyasha had held her lifeless body in his arms for what had seemed like an eternity after they'd found her.

Inuyasha had went on a rampage and after having caught the ones responsible he'd just shut himself in the hut he and Kagome had called home. Miroku and Sango, who had just gotten married, took care of him. And even while they kept his whithering form in some state of aliveness they could not mend the rift in his heart.

Nor gather the pieces of his soul like they'd done the Shikon no Tama.

Sesshoumaru, now finally reconciled with his brother after Naraku's demise, had even tried to actually beat life back into him. But it had all been in vain, no matter what anyone of them did, it didn't bring the hanyo's old self back. He'd vanished as if his life had been taken along with Kagome's.

And now, on a clear day some eight months after Kagome's passing, an old friend had appeared on the edge of the village.

Sango had not believed her eyes at first. For what greeted her gaze besides the familiar man was not something she would have expected to see.

What she saw was Kouga, the wolf prince, a one time suitor of Kagome's and an annoyance to Inuyasha's existence.

The attitudes between Inuyasha and Kouga had worsened to open hostility before the defeat of Naraku and none of them had seen the ookami for almost a year now. The situation had forced the Shard seekers to avoid coming across Kouga and his pack as much as they could. And after a while, Kouga had stopped bumping into them and aid with their hunt for Naraku.

It was Kagome who had seen Kouga last. She'd gone to confront Kouga over the reason why the two seemed so intent to kill each other every time they met now despite Inuyasha's very vocal protests against her going. She'd come back empty handed, telling that she'd gotten nothing out of the wolf. But Sango had seen how Kagome would glance at Inuyasha oddly after she had returned to them. And there had always been a lingering sadness in her eyes. Then they had been thrust to open conflict with Naraku who didn't survive the confrontation, burying all other worries from their minds.

And now Kouga was there. Holding a small child tenderly in his arms. "I need to see Inuyasha" he quipped.

Sango finally regained her ability to speak. "Whose child is that?" she asked incredulously, if not even a bit bluntly, staring at the bundle in the man's strong arms.. And even through her surprise she registered how carefully Kouga held the child, as if it was the most precious thing in the world.

Her eyes widened as she realized the truth. "It's your, isn't it? But why are you here?"

Before Kouga could answer, Sango decided to call her husband, better to get answer from Kouga if he was a bit cornered. "Miroku, come here!"

The black and purple clad monk soon stood by her side, anxious. "What is it? Is it the baby? Do you need to sit down? It's your back again, isn't i--" When he spotted Kouga he, too, stared, flabbergasted enough to stop mid-sentence.

"I want to see Inuyasha." Kouga stated yet again, looking at the pair defiantly."I need to speak with him."

Both Sango and Miroku grew sad. "So you have heard of Kagome, I take it?" Miroku asked, searching for tell-tale signs of grief on the wolf prince's face.

A shadow crossed Kouga's features. "Yes I heard, I was unable to come sooner." He shifted the child on his arms. "It was a shock to hear, I'll miss her. It must have struck Inuyasha hard." Sango nodded, a tear escaping her eye as Miroku patted her arm in comfort.

"But what of your animosity?" Miroku asked, not having forgotten the last instance he'd seen Kouga and Inuyasha take it out on each other, nearly succeeding in killing each other. Even if the ookami seemed calm now it wasn't a guarantee. And even if the monk didn't quite believe that Kouga would try and kill anyone with a child in his arms he still slid a protective arm around Sango and groped for a few sutra's inside his robes.

Kouga's face took on a look of serenity. "There are things more important to me now...," he murmured, looking down at the child in his arms.

Miroku saw the truth in that look, the pure love. He nodded his understanding. It seemed that for the ookami too, family overrode all other thoughts. They could ask Kouga later.

"I could ask if he wants to see you," Sango said. She wasn't sure if it was the right thing. But maybe seeing Kouga would bring some life back to the hanyo's dead eyes.

"How has he been?"

"He's drawn almost onto himself. We try and see he eats and Shippo keeps him company." Miroku explained as his wife walked into the village and the men turned to follow her. The monk tried to steal a peek on the child Kouga carried in his arms but was unsuccessful. "But he rarely speaks, he's drawn almost completely into his own world. One where Kagome didn't pass on..." Miroku sighed heavily. It had struck them all hard. Having Kagome's exuberance, her positivity and liveliness taken away so abruptly had left none of them unscathed.

They stopped in front of a hut a little ways outside the others. Hearing Sango talk inside the two men waited. The child on Kouga's arms started to fuss and as the wolf demon drew the blankets away Miroku felt his breath stop.

The child had raven black hair with streaks of white and perched on top of the hair were a pair of little white ears. Miroku stared at Kouga in disbelief. It couldn't be...! Kouga saved him a brief glare. "But how?..." Miroku stuttered out.

Just then Sango came out.

"He barely acknowledged me. And Shippou's run away again. Playing with the other children I suspect." She looked at the two men and then at the small child. She stared at the child.

And stared.

And stared.

"_Now_ do you understand why I need to see him?" Kouga asked them both quietly.

"I see.." Sango murmured almost to herself. "But how? When did?... I thought you loved Kagome?"

"I don't know about my feelings myself any more," the ookami sighed. He was troubled but as his expression fell on the child he seemed to become instantly soothed. "But she, she's my everything now," he smiled at the child in his strong but gentle warriors hands. The devotion in his eyes made Sango choke in her emotional state. Miroku patted her shoulder.

"It wasn't anything serious, just a one time thing..." he stopped at the creak of floor broads.

"Come to make a relationship out of it, have you?" The voice was a low growl, gruff because of lack of use, threatening and laced with malice reaching to the core.

They all whipped around to see Inuyasha standing in the doorway, leaning on it heavily, the exertion almost too much for him, after his long months of continued ill health. Kouga stared at Inuyasha's ragged appearance. His hair matted and lank. His face was hollow, dark circles under his eyes and he looked bone weary.

And there was such anger in his eyes. Such anger. But it was mixed with infinite sadness. Making Kouga feel a chill down to his very bones. It was the face of a man who'd lost his reason to live. A man ready to do anything.

If the hanyo hadn't noticed the child in his arms, Kouga was certain he'd had been attacked right after the other stopped speaking.

"No...," there was such raw emotion, such incredulity in Inuyasha's voice now and his face was devoid of colour. He seemed on the edge of fainting. "Not this, please..." His protesting muscles finally gave out and his knees buckled. He ended on his knees on the door opening. Claws fisting into fabric, emotion shaking him, head bowed.

He raised his head up, to glance at the child again. He spoke in a whisper. "Please tell me it isn't mine..." He collapsed in a heap, crying. "Tell me it isn't mine, please, please..."

Kouga looked at the hanyo uneasily. He sighed. He'd known it might come to this.

"She's yours, I can't and _will_ not deny it."

At his words, Inuyasha snarled at him, attempting to lash out. Kouga backed a few meters in one leap, shielding the child in his arms. They could all see Inuyasha's eyes bleeding from gold to crimson.

"Kuso...," Miroku whispered under his breath and drew the few sutra's he'd been fingering earlier to stamp them to Inuyasha in an attempt to subdue him.

The child began to cry, having been woken by Kouga hoisting her in an attempt to protect her. "Shh, precious..." He leaped even farther sideways.

Sango was stumbling backwards too, Miroku throwing her a worried glance, why hadn't he seen this coming and told her to stay away?

It was Sango's luck that she tripped and fell when she did. Inuyasha's leap would have made him hit her. But the hanyo fell to the ground, unconscious, as Miroku hit him in the head with his staff. And covered him with sutra's. The monk rushed to Sango to help her up, seeing her fall, even if it had prevented possibly more grievous harm befalling her, had made his heart stop.

"Are you okay?"

Sango nodded an okay and let Miroku fuss over her, assuring him that their baby was okay and she was okay.

They turned as Kouga slumped to sit on the ground, shaky hands cradling his daughter close. He looked terrified.

"I had no idea he hated me this much..."

They all looked at the still unconscious hanyo, what had really happened to make him loose it so completely? To let out his youkai and attack without indiscrimination. It seemed that Miroku and Sango weren't the only one's who didn't know everything about the hanyo's inner turmoil.


	2. Chapter 2

Author : Saraste

Fandom : Inuyasha

Pairings : MirokuxSango, past InuyashaxKagome, past Kouga/Inuyasha

Rating : PG-13

Genre : Slash with a side-serving of het(non-explicit), Family, Angst

Warnings : MPREG

- - - -

2. Memories

"Here, have some tea," Sango laid a cup down in the floor in front of Kouga. The man didn't acknowledge her other than nodding absently, he kept on looking at the child he held in his arms protectively, his and Inuyasha's daughter. A child he'd very nearly lost that afternoon.

He still saw Inuyasha taking a swing at him, and her, in his minds eye. Kouga shuddered.

The taijiya and ookami were sitting on the floor of her and Miroku's hut. She had led him there to calm down after Inuyasha's violent outburst. The hut wasn't grand but it was large and homey with lots of room for the baby. It was lived in. A home.

Unlike the hut Inuyasha resided in, a ghost of a place, memory haunting every inch of wood. A cage for a mourning soul. But neither Sango nor Miroku had gotten Inuyasha to leave the place and it's oppressing memories. They hardly got him to do anything.

And now this.

The ookami's arrival had stirred Inuyasha out of his month long stupor but the reason of Kouga's arrival had taken all the surviving members of the former Shard seekers by surprise. The former taijiya smiled sadly as she looked at the tiny girl bundled up in the ookami's protective arms. She was beautiful with her tussled black but white hair and the ears on her head, twitching adorably as she slept, were an undeniable proof of her origins.

Sango sat down next to Kouga as he continued to sit rigidly, hands shaking, gripping his daughter protectively. He'd almost lost her today.

_I knew I shouldn't have come..._

"Kouga?" Sango asked softly, her voice soothing, snapping Kouga out of his little world. He finally turned to her, a haunted look on his face.

"I never expected him to hate me this much. I mean, what we did, how she came to be," he nodded towards his daughter, "it was cheating on Kagome but it was just a one off thing. But I couldn't believe he'd hate me as much as to go all youkai and try and..." He choked up and ran a finger on his daughters soft cheek.

"With his history you'd think that family would be the one thing Inuyasha wouldn't..."

His daughter's pale blue eyes opened and sought out his, her face lighting up in a beatific smile. She gurgled happily and grabbed onto Kouga's finger with her small hand as he wriggled it in front of her. Then she snatched the finger as her personal toy. Sucking at it eagerly, she quickly fell asleep again.

Kouga smiled at her warmly.

"You love her very much, don't you?" Sango asked, smiling at them. She shifted slightly on her spot, her back was aching again. Her hand caressed her swollen midsection, feeling a fluttering sense of movement against her palm. She really couldn't wait for the baby to come. Only some weeks and then...

"She's my world." He raised her up and kissed her cheek, hugging her tiny form close. "My Aiko...I love her more than everything. More than I loved--" Kouga stopped abruptly and looked to Sango in panic.

"More than you ever loved Inuyasha, right?" Sango sighed and looked at the ookami. Men were dense, Kouga as much as Inuyasha had always been. Poor Inuyasha...

"I see him in her, very day. She's a constant reminder of what we had, even for only one night. My little loved one... Inuyasha only looked troubled afterwards, when he left in the morning, but there wasn't hatred then, that came after. And I was angry, so angry at him.." Kouga raised his head wearily. "He really hates me, doesn't he?"

Sango averted his eyes, sighing deeply. "I think" she said finally, turning back to look at him, her eyes flickering briefly over his sleeping daughters tiny face, "that he hates the world. He hasn't come to terms with his loss."

A shadow passed over her face. "Inuyasha loved her very much, as you know. And still..." The former taijiya frowned. "Still there is something, something not quite right..."

"What do you mean?" Kouga asked.

"His grief is so all consuming. So intense. But it is to be expected, knowing now that you two were intimate..." she coughed delicately, her warm brown eyes straying over to Aiko, "Now I think that maybe Inuyasha has been feeling guilty over it but it still doesn't explain it all."

They sat in silence for a short while, both immersed in their own thoughts.

But their thoughts weren't that dissimilar, they were both thinking about Kagome. She had been a dear friend to both and her passing had left a rift in their lives that would never be fixed, could never be mended.

She was now only a sweet memory of a laughing, exuberant girl that had left their lives as abruptly as she'd come. Neither would never forget her.

Kouga was the first to speak. "I... Could you take me to Kagome's grave?"

Sango simply nodded.

"She would have had our baby..."

Miroku turned around at Inuyasha's raspy voice. The hanyou's eyes swam with tears as he lay there on the floor of the hut, restrained by ofuda's. The revelation stabbed at Miroku's heart. The loss his friend had suffered had been beyond anything he could ever have imagined even before now, but the hanyou's revelation made it even more heart breaking. To have lost both Kagome and their unborn child...

"Inuyasha..." He wanted to ask why his friend hadn't told him. Why Inuyasha hadn't shared his burden, a burden too much for anyone to bear alone. Miroku couldn't even begin to think what he'd do if something similar would happen to Sango.

Inuyasha's head snapped sharply at Miroku's direction, his eyes full of feverish emotion, pain, anger... "She would have had our pup and then she was gone and I couldn't save her! And our baby..." He inhaled a shaky breath, the loss fresh again, the pain acute, time hadn't lessened the hurt not one bit. But now, lest he go mad, his mind had sought out someone to blame. Someone to accuse of the hurt and searing pain in his heart. Someone to hold resposible.

"It's all that damned bastards fault!"

Going from sorrow to anger in a flash, the look on his face, the glint of red eyes, made Miroku flinch and back away from him. The monk held his shakujo in front of him, his other hand fumbling for more ofuda. Inuyasha cried in rage and struggled against his binds.

"Calm down." Miroku talked to him in a soothing tone, not abandoning his position. Inuyasha's volatile moods to unpredictable to be taken too lightly. Better be safe than much sorry later. Then he thought of something, a last resort to calm his friend before he needed to restrain him more. "Kagome would not want you to behave this way, Inuyasha."

The rage melted into sorrow in the blink of an eye. Hearing her name, the mention of her was too much for Inuyasha. He broke and the red melted from his eyes. And he cried, the mere mention of her name once again opening the flow of tears that had been absent for months after Kagome's passing, the hanyou's grief being expressed through his adamant attempt at trying to starve himself in hopes of joining her on the other side, hoping he was human enough to get there. But now the raw sorrow made him cry again, made him shed tears for her sake as much as his own. Made the pain and sorrow show, made him show emotion again apart from the stupor he'd been in.

Miroku just looked at him, tears flowing down his own cheeks too.

What Kagome must have felt as she'd been attacked? If she'd had time to think anything. Let alone feel, apart from the demons claws digging into her gut and probably killing her baby even before it's mother drew her last breath. She'd choked on her own blood. They could only hope that she'd already passed out from the blood loss before it had happened.

At least she'd been happy for the short while she and Inuyasha had been mates. But that did not justify her violent demise at such a young age. Nor their unborn child's. Nothing could. The monk murmured a short prayer to her soul, the baby's soul, letting his tears come as they would.

"Miroku, I want to go see her grave..."

Inuyasha's voice broke the silence after what seemed like hours. Miroku couldn't really deny his friend this one want. To visit the grave of his dead beloved was what Inuyasha needed and Miroku would not stop him. So he answered the only way he could.

"Of course, let's go see her..."


	3. Chapter 3

Author : Saraste

Fandom : Inuyasha

Pairings : MirokuxSango, past InuyashaxKagome, past Kouga/Inuyasha

Rating : PG-13

Genre : Slash with a side-serving of het(non-explicit), Family, Angst

Warnings : MPREG

A/N: I can only apologize for this taking so long. It's all because I revised it. There's a quite different version of chapter three up at on my account. I was told it was a bit too packed with action and slightly confusing. So you get a 'better' version with a much more slow build up of events. It also gives me a chance to properly cushion and explain some events happening in what will now be the fourth chapter. Again, sorry it took so long.

**3. A Grave Visit**

Kagome had been buried in a small shrine.

It was up a hill on the outskirts of the village. Surrounded by forest, the treebranches often filled with birds chattering, the clearing itself in full bloom, littered with small star shaped flowers.

Her friends made sure that there were always fresh flowers present on the grave itself. Miroku up to her grave came to pray every day that he could.

Inuyasha hadn't been there in weeks, his recent melancholia had again made him inactive and unresponsive.

After her death he'd been there, unmoving, for weeks. Weeping and raging to whatever deities would listen to give her back. Unmoved even by the elements, skies drenching him as they seemed to mourn for her loss with him. He was as dead to the world as he could be.

But he never took matters drastically into his own hands. For he knew, deep down, that Kagome wouldn't have wanted that. And someone was always watching. If it wasn't the monk or the taijiya, or even the runt of a fox demon, it was the nekomata, keeping him in her line of sight at all times.

They did not want him to perish too.

The issue of Kagome death had made a new rift between Inuyasha and his brother. He accused the lord of the Western Lands of the breaking of Tenseiga, the sword that could have revived her. The blade had been destroyed by Naraku prior to the last battle and Inuyasha claimed that it had only been because of Sesshoumaru's laxness. But Sesshoumaru had understood his brothers pain and had not bothered him nor his friends for living on his lands.

Now, as Miroku helped him up the hill, the hanyou's ears picked up a child's laughter...

Sango led Kouga to Kagome's shrine with a sad smile on her face.

"Hello Kagome..." the former taijiya greeted as they neared.

She held a small bouquet of flowers in her hands. This would probably be the last time she'd be able to visit her friends final resting place before the birth. Even climbing up the hill, although with Kouga's help, had been a feat. She knelt down without the usual grace Kouga had always seen her exhibit, her child heavy belly hampering the eloquence of her movements. She laid the flowers in front of the plaque bearing the inscription of Kagome's name. She smiled sadly as her fingers touched the plaque.

_'I'm sorry...'_

Kouga sat down cross-legged next to Sango. He bowed his head, daughter in his arms.

"Hi Kagome", he bowed his head. "Aiko... This is Kagome's grave..." His voice was soft and tinged with grief as he spoke to the child. She opened her eyes and looked straight at him. She gurgled happily at her father, no idea of the cruelty of the world.

Even Sango couldn't help but smile at her innocence. For the first time a visit to Kagome's grave wasn't filled with remorse for the former taijiya. Life continued and even though the pain in her heart might fade to an ache it didn't mean she'd ever forget. Kagome's mere memory was too vivacious for that.

"Kagome... I can only beg for your forgiveness", Kouga swallowed and looked at Sango. Then he looked down at his daughter, their daughter. He raised her up, facing the grave.

"This is Aiko, mine and Inuyasha's daughter".

But he couldn't utter all he wanted to say aloud. Not with Sango sitting right next to her. She'd been her friend.

_'I'm sorry for all that happened. You saw how angry he was at me? He doesn't know, does he? That you knew? Kami-sama, did that make you distracted? Was I at fault?'_

He cried.

Sango lay a soothing hand on his arm. She smiled softly.

"You weren't at fault. No one can know what will eventually come to pass. Her passing", she stopped to draw breath, still pained at talking about her friends death,"was a cruel, violent accident. Coincidence. A cruel twist of fate".

She sniffed at looked at the inscription hacked on stone.

"She would not have wanted you to blame yourself. Much less Inuyasha to blame himself, as he has."

Her fingers traced the grooves of the kanji of Kagome's name. It seemed to soothe her nerves, doing that. It felt as Kagome was closer that way.

"I do miss her terribly", Sango whispered. "But she isn't coming back and we best try and lead our lives as well as we can, preserving her memory in our hearts". She smiled to Kouga.

The ookami saw the wisdom in her words. To have already lost so much even before Kagome's death, the taijiya was one of the strongest people he'd ever met. He smiled back at her in thanks.

The moment was broken with an angry voice.

"Did you even know?! Bastard!" Inuyasha swung at Kouga, eyes bleeding between red and golden. "Did you?..." His every word was backed with an attempt to hit the ookami.

"Know what? Inu--" Kouga jumped out of harms way, shielding their daughter with his arms. He was afraid. He'd not thought that Inuyasha would come after him in such a way. He was still so violent in his grief. It was the crux of the youkai blood that those in possession of it mourned long and passionately. But Inuyasha was beyond reason. Attacking him as he held their daughter.

_Their daughter_...

Funny how it didn't quite seem to sink in to Inuyasha as the hanyou swiped at Kouga and Aiko with his claws again.

Crimson was bleeding to amber as Inuyasha's grief was giving way for his youkai to tear through. Kouga shuddered at the sight. He glanced around for any hope for his daughter. He was the only one able to keep Inuaysha away even when he went all youkai, but not with Aiko in his arms. He needed to get her to safety.

Kouga could see Sango hovering nearby, Miroku was talking with her in frantic whispers. She was glancing back at them, a hand on her stomach, clearly distressed as she argued with her mate.

He needed to duck again as Inuyasha took another swipe at him. Aiko began to cry. Kouga jumped sideways, the tips of Inuyasha's claws managed to scrape his back. Too damn close.

"Inuyasha! Stop it!" He pleaded for the hanyou to stop.

But looking at the hanyou's eyes, Kouga could see that it would never happen. Inuyasha was losing control and fast.

With a careful leap Kouga landed next to a now crying Sango and deposited the baby in her arms. "Look after her, will you?" He pleaded with her, jumping off again before she could open her mouth. Inuyasha's hit left a big crater on the ground just inches away from where Sango stood and where Kouga had just been.

The ookami could see the monk's leap to safety with his daughter and the taijiya.

Miroku drew his wife out of harms way, leading her away down the stone steps, deciding it was best to leave Inuyasha and Kouga to settle things between themselves. They would hurt each other, sure, but Miroku would be damned before he let Sango get hurt. Aiko was crying desolately for being separated from her father.

Miroku would get Sango to the village and then come back to aid Inuyasha, though it seemed it was Kouga who would need it more.


	4. Chapter 4

Author : Saraste

Fandom : Inuyasha

Pairings : MirokuxSango, past InuyashaxKagome, past Kouga/Inuyasha

Rating : M

Genre : Slash with a side-serving of het(non-explicit), Family, Angst

Warnings : MPREG

Wordcount : 1072

Chapter 4 – Consequences

"Bastard!" Inuyasha bellowed after Kouga as the ookami led him farther into the woods and away from Kagome's grave site. He was hot on the youkai's heels, losing his temper and reason to his youkai side.

Away from the all too hurtful reality of his one-time folly, their forbidden tryst. The living proof of his

The ookami dodged the hanyou's raged attacks the best he could, hitting back but missing due to his defensive stance. He tried to reason with Inuyasha, to get him to calm down, to no avail. His words were of no use, Inuyasha was past listening. It was all a blur of green as trees zipped past, Inuyasha hot in pursuit after him, fire and ice, not listening to reason.

A one moment of distraction was what did Kouga in.

Inuyasha finally managed to hit him and the ookami crashed against a tree with a sickening crack. Rolling over onto the ground, coughing, Kouga tried to get his bearings, coughing up blood, his body flaring with pain. For someone who looked to be on death's door, Inuyasha was still strong. But he was fuelled by grief and his flickering youkai side. He would not last this way for long. But Kouga still feared that it would be too long for him to take either way. He needed to hit the hanyou, even while his attack was in some ways justified.

Inuyasha yanked Kouga up violently by his hair and kneed him in the crotch, taking him by surprise.

"She was... It was your fault!" the hanyou was ripping at Kouga's furs, kicking and pummelling his fists into him despite Kouga's best efforts to keep him at bay. Blocking him as best as he could yet still hesitant to really hit back full strength. But it was to no avail, he was still too winded after having hit the tree and apparently his head. And Inuyasha had got a few good hits to his head too, leaving him with a black eye and a bleeding temple. Disorientation was taking it's toll on his movements. And as much as he'd like to deny it, the hanyou's strength was greater than his own.

Inuyasha's eyes were bleeding between golden and crimson, long stripes half forming on his cheeks as his fangs elongated. Kouga didn't know if the hanyou was more hanyou or demon at any given second. He rained blows on Kouga's body, the ookami blocking them the best he could, finally getting some of his own blows past the hanyou's shoddy defence. Inuyasha was more on the offensive than defensive, going berserk with his attacks. He was shouting and, what seemed to be the most unreal thing to do, crying. Sobbing quietly as he verbally abused his one time bedmate and mother to his child, driwing his words home with pain and blood.

Their tragic love triangle was once again nearing a pivotal moment, both their future happiness was being weighed on the scales of fate, the next moments and their actions thereafter sealing their destiny for better or for worse.

The ripping on Kouga's clothing continued and he was flipped onto his stomach, hands held behind his back as Inuyasha ripped the last bits of his loincloth away, holding him down. Kouga was exposed and vulnerable, trashing under his assailant, in vain. Rage and succumbing to his youkai had given Inuyasha's worn body the strength he needed to overpower Kouga.

"You bastard! Scum!" Inuyasha ground out as he violently breached Kouga's body, hurting him in ways that had nothing to do with physical pain. Kouga's body burned up with blinding white pain and he cry out in agony and try to get away again. Away from the assault on his body, away from Inuyasha's unrelenting punishment. His body split in half by the burning pain of entry.

"You..!" Inuyasha shoved his hips forward, making Kouga's body shift and the ookami's face plant painfully in the dirt.

"It's all your fault! Because you made me do it! You made me cheat! She died! Our baby died! It's all your fault! Bastard!"

The ookami struggled but the hanyou's grip held firm. "Inuyasha, don't!" Kouga cried out in pain as Inuyasha simply pounded into him mercilessly. The crack in the ookami's heart was widening with every violent thrust. Inuyasha was breaking Kouga both body and soul, his heart shattering into tiny pieces as he bled and fought against Inuyasha violating him.

Soon the silver haired ghost of a man was done. Inuyasha slumped over Kouga's battered form, regaining his breath, coming to his senses. Coming back to himself. He drew away in horror as he realized, when his youkai relented it's hold, satisfied to have had it's share of violence. Even his grief didn't justify this. And certainly not his anger. He and Kouga were linked now. Inuyasha cursed to have let his youkai have free reign. To not have stopped it, himself...

"Inuyasha! Kouga!"

The hanyou could hear his monk friend calling for them. He got up and tucked himself in, disgusted with himself and what he'd done. Backing away, he fell to his knees and retched, making what little had gone down during the day come up again and spill to the forest floor. He wiped his mouth, took a one last glance at Kouga's wounded form laying on the ground, bleeding, broken, violated...

What he'd done to him...

Inuyasha fled, ran to the woods and disappeared from sight.

* * * *

Kouga was raw and bleeding. Panting out in pained gasps, just laying there, coming to grips with what had happened. His head and body pounding with the pain as the hanyou lay slumped over him, finished and having done his worst.

Inuyasha had raped him.

Kouga heard the sharp intake of breath from Inuyasha and felt him move away from his body, as slight as the sensation was when Kouga's whole body was humming with pain. He heard the retching and the hurried footsteps that got ever fainter. Kouga also heard Miroku calling for them. And then he passed out, his body and mind finally succumbing to the darkness evading him during his dark ordeal.

Fate had dealt the ookami and hanyou a harsh fate, a destiny few would consider to be nothing else but a curse...

But it would be their actions that would decide which it, in the end, would be. Would they be able to overcome this?


End file.
